Project STAR targets Salt Spring

The community of Salt Spring in Montego Bay, St James, is to benefit from the social interventions being facilitated through Project STAR, a social and economic transformation initiative created by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

The announcement of its entry into the community was made at a press briefing recently, at The Summit in Kingston.

Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee, vice president of the PSOJ and data specialist for Project STAR, said that Salt Spring was selected because it was one of the top communities in St James for total major crimes over the last three years, and has the highest rate of increase in major crimes over the past 12 months.

“Project STAR is going to provide support … to arrest the increasing trend of crime in Salt Spring and from a logistical point of view, Salt Spring fits the profile in that it … has several institutions such as churches, schools, and community organisations in place that can take ownership of these initiatives that will be facilitated by Project STAR,” he explained.

Saffrey Brown, project director at Project STAR, said the team looks forward to supporting Salt Spring in the coming months.

“Project STAR is focusing on community led development, as we believe it is the foundation of progress.” she said.

So far, Project STAR has been working in the communities of east downtown Kingston, Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland, and May Pen in Clarendon.

Brown said the project positioned itself as a ‘whole of society’ transformation effort and, through its inclusive and broad-based approach, has been able to start providing responses to a wide cross-section of a community’s ecosystem.

“Traditionally, interventions have focused on specific target groups, such as at-risk youth or entrepreneurs, to name a few. Project STAR’s approach seeks to ensure that all key populations within a space have opportunities for accessing social and economic opportunities,” she informed.

“One area that had to be communicated effectively at the early stage of community entry is that Project STAR aims to provide solutions for a wide cross-section of the community,” she added.

Speaking of the successes of Project STAR’s intervention within the last six months, Brown said that 1,491 persons accessed initiatives supported by Project STAR; 143 community members were trained in economic empowerment and 52 members obtained employment under Project STAR’s job placement pilot programme.

Meanwhile, 96 individuals have been impacted by entrepreneurial based support; 1,531 individuals were involved in community consultation and planning and 29 institutional and organisational stakeholders involved in project delivery.

“We have had strengthened or formed 28 local community groups who initiated 46 community led initiatives,” she said.